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The Liebster Award

I’m back.

Several weeks (ahem…months) ago, a college friend and fellow blogger, Britni @ Moustaches on Strings, nominated me for a Liebster Award. Since I’m guest posting on another friend’s blog next week, I figured I’d better get back into the blogging game so I have something presentable to show when readers (hopefully) click my link! I had a lot of fun answering Britni’s questions. Read on to learn more about this cool “award.”)

The Liebster Award is an award distributed by bloggers for blogs with under 200 followers. Supposedly, it started in Germany, as a way for readers and bloggers to discover new blogs to follow. It connects the blogging community and helps web surfers expand their horizons!

The Rules:1. Choose 11 other up-and-coming bloggers and link to them in your Liebster post.2. Answer the 11 questions the previous blogger set for you, then create 11 different ones for the bloggers you will choose.3. Let those bloggers know you nominated them.4. No tag backs. No mulligans. No puppy guarding. Okay, just don’t tag the person who nominated you.5. Display the Liebster logo.

WIthout further ado…here are the questions that Britni gave me to answer:

1. Crumple or fold? (toilet paper, that is.) Crumple. I strongly believe this results in more folds per square inch, and therefore, more layers of toilet paper, and THEREFORE, more bang for your buck.

2. How do you feel about people who chew on ice? I think I might be ambivalent. I don’t care for people who chew on huge pieces of ice (think the “cubed” setting on refrigerator ice machines), but I myself have been known to chew smaller ice occasionally (think the “crushed” setting). Generally I just prefer to let it melt and have, as the dear Michael Ulmer taught me to call it, “Second Drink.”

3. How do we know each other? Britni lived just down the hall from me…on the second floor of Frees Hall at Doane College. We were English majors and boy-crazy at the same time (still are, both of those things). Though we don’t talk too often, I know she’s my hippie, grammar-loving friend who will always be game for a chat!

4. N*SYNC or Backstreet Boys? Why? First, the fact that I corrected the location of the asterisk on N*SYNC before I answered this should tell you something. A younger, less worldly me might have answered Backstreet Boys, but let’s be real. I had dolls. I had wall posters. I had wallet-sized posters. I had every fun fact from Tiger Beat and J-14 memorized. And when it came time to give CDs to the thrift store the summer before college…out the door went the Backstreet Boys. I still listen to the N*SYNC Christmas album in my car every winter. Last, but not least, the highlight of my adult life thus far was when Lance Bass tweeted me “xoxo.” Life. Made.

5. What is one book that changed your life? How? Wow. I think this is the hardest question you could give me. I could write pages and pages of books that have changed me. I think, to keep it short, I will choose my favorite book: The Barn by Avi. Though it is short and simple, and categorized as a young adult novel, The Barn taught me important lessons about family, hard work, and appreciating what I have. I still remember getting a copy as a gift. I had read it so many times and checked it out so often from the library (several times literally checking it in, then asking them to check it right back out if it wasn’t on hold). Then, on Christmas that year, I unwrapped a brand new, hardcover version with a simple note from my dad on the inside cover: “The book you love, for the girl we love.” My father, who always teased me about buying books because “Why do you need to read them more than once?” had purchased this for me, and had acknowledged that you could “love” a book. The gift changed my life almost as much as the story itself.

6. How is your life different than what you had imagined it would be at age 11? In too many ways to count! I’m in a completely different career field. I have absolutely no interest in being a lawyer. I’m not married and have no children (go ahead, tease me for that). I am not living in Boston (and don’t plan to anytime soon). I live in Kansas instead, a place I had only been to one time and considered the land of only Dorothy and Toto.

7. Is there one piece of jewelry that you always wear? There are two: first, my mother’s ring, which her parents gave her for her high school graduate and which she gave me for mine. Second, my watch. It’s not an heirloom, but I do love it. It was a gift and it’s from Fossil. I couldn’t live with just telling the time off my cell phone.

8. Why aren’t tattoos/facial piercings acceptable in the majority of professional workplaces? I couldn’t exactly answer. There are different rules at different places, and I’m sure different justifications. For as much as I am pro-self expression, I’m surprised I’m against visible tattoos and excessive piercings in the workplace. Here’s my personal viewpoint: in any workplace, we should strive to maintain focus on the work we do and the product/service/thing we produce or provide. ALL forms of external expression that are excessive (this includes inappropriate or too casual dress, visible tattoos, excessive piercings, out of control hair, etc) can be a distraction to the people we work with as well as the people we serve. I guess this would justify why tattoos are okay while working at a tattoo parlor, or unique hairstyles are welcome as a hairstylist. I don’t know, take this with a grain of salt, because I’m uncertain!

9. Could you survive without sunglasses? Obviously I’m being dramatic. How would forgetting your sunglasses at home impact your day? Since I wear glasses over contacts 99% of the time, and my sunglasses are prescription, my day would be negatively impacted. (This is less so when I’m at my desk at work, and more when I’m out and about during the day.) Sometimes, I wear my sunglasses and forget my regular glasses…so I’m the person at Target wearing her sunglasses around, trying to read the overhead signs to find what I need.

10. What language do you love to listen to, but don’t understand or speak any yourself? Why? Italian. Oh, it’s so beautiful and romantic-sounding. This is partially because I don’t understand any of it, so it sounds extra exotic (I’m a French speaker myself). But it is also partially because I had an unhealthy obsession with the Lizzie McGuire movie as a teenager, in which she falls in love with an Italian celebrity and lives out her dream of performing in front of thousands of people while impersonating an Italian pop star.

11. What is your favorite color combination? This changes every few months! What usually sticks around, though, is my love for neutrals with dusty, antiqued colors as an accent. I’m also a fan of a good metallic (gold only please, no silver). And lately, my favorite combo to dress in is a coral pink with mint green. I chose this palette because it has a little bit of everything I like (plus tea, which I love!).

AND NOW, THE MOMENT YOU’VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR…

THE LIEBSTER NOMINEES FROM POINT OF FOCUS!

(Rumour on the interwebs has it that the original award only requires nomination of 3-6 bloggers, so that’s how many I’m going to do! I hope you’ll click their links and follow them. These people have great things to say! And for those tagged who haven’t posted in awhile…I hope this inspires you as it did me.)